Rutgers’ season ends with round of 16 loss at ucla

The Rutgers men’s soccer team’s season came to an end last
night, and UCLA forced it to play catch-up for its final 89
minutes.

The 13th-seeded Bruins beat the Scarlet Knights, 3-0, in Los
Angeles, where they opened the scoring 41 seconds into the Sweet 16
matchup of the NCAA?Tournament.

Junior forward Chandler Hoffman capitalized on a Patrick Matchett
cross less than a minute into the game to put Rutgers in an early
deficit.

The Knights rallied from behind in a win against fourth-seeded
Boston?College in the previous round and responded in kind at
UCLA.

Rutgers took four of the next five shots, but only one was on
target and?UCLA goalkeeper Brian?Rowe was up to task.

Rutgers goalkeeper Kevin?McMullen made three saves in the first
half, but UCLA sophomore forward Victor Chavez capitalized on a
rebound after one of them to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead entering
the half.

Hoffman scored again in the 48th minute, one-timing a cross, to
give UCLA a 3-0 lead and complete control of the contest.

Rutgers’ flurry of shots in the final 42 minutes rarely found the
net and did little to spark a comeback.

The loss ends a near-flawless run of 10 games for the Knights,
which went 7-2-2 after an early October overtime loss at No. 2
Maryland.

Rutgers’ only losses were against UCLA and Connecticut in the
Big?East Tournament, which did not stop Rutgers from qualifying for
its first NCAA?Tournament berth since 2006.